Improvement in skates



Nrrnn raras trice .arent VASHBURN RAGE, OF LOGKPORT, NEV YORK..

IMPROVEMENT IN SKATES.

To if/ZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, VASHBURN RACE, of Lockport, in the county of Niagara and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Skates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part (if this specification.

Figurel is a side elevation of my improved skate; Fig. 2, a central longitudinal vertical section thereof; Fig. 3, a vertical transverse section in the plane of line x or, Fig. l.

Likeletters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the iigures.

My invention consists of a bearing for securing the runner to the foot-piece, formed with a longitudinal dovetailed channel,which receives the top of the runner of corresponding shape, and provided with ave'rtical screwhole, through which passes a screw from the top, projecting down into a notch in the top oi' the runner, by which means not only is the runner clamped firmly to the foot-piece, but the same is prevented from working endwise.

In the accompanying drawings, A repre- .sents the ordinary foot-piece, and B the castiron runner, which is secured to the foot-piece by means of bearings C C. I prefer to make the bearings circular, substantially of the shape shown, and they are sunk into the wood in such a manner as to iirmly hold in place when secured by the means hereinafter described. In the lower portion of each bearing, below the wood and longitudinally of the skate, is made a dovetailed groove, a, Fig. 3, of sufiicient depth to receive and hold firmly the top of the skate-runner, which is made concaveV or hollowing at the sides, to produce the corresponding wedging or beveling form, as shown at b. Vertically in the bearing is made a screwhole, through which passes a screw, D or D', whose lower end projects and rests in a notch, c, made in the upper edge of the runner within the groove ,as shown most clearly in Figs. 2 and 3. The front screw, D, is provided with a rigid head, d, and screws down from the top, but therearone,D, issimply a plain straight screw,l which holds in the bearing G at the bottoni while it projects above the foot-piece at the top, thus forming the heel-screw, and aloose jam-nut, d, screws down over it, thus clamping the runner to the foot-piece. By this means it will be seen that the heel-screw performs a double functiem-viz., it secures the runner in place andv at the same time itmay be adj usted up or down a greater or less height to adapt it to differentsized heels, or to compensate for the wear and enlargement of the hole in which it ts in the heel.v

lits, is made sufiiciently deep to allow said bearing to be drawn up therein by the action of the screw in such a manner that the top edge of the runner will strike and clamp against the under side of the bed, thus tightening it inthe dovetailedA groove a so firmly that it cannot become displaced under ordinary circumstances. Such an effect I believe is entirely origi nal with myself. In addition to this the runner is held the whole diameter or length of the bearing C by the bevel olf the dovetail, so that a cast-iron ruimer is made as strong and safe as a steel one. rlhe advantage of this eX- tended holdA of the bearing C on the upper edge of the skate over that device where the runner isheld in a plane groove simply by a dovetail-headed screw notched into the top of the runner is obvious. In the latter case a cast-iron runner would be worthless, from the fact that the screw would break out at the -iirst unusual strain. j

Second. Thus secured in the dovetailed groove a of the bearing the ruimer is held against end motion, or from moving longitudinally by means of the notches o in the runner, in which rest the ends of the clamping screws D D. By this device of the dovethe runner in place, with a jam-nut screwing In witness whereof I have hereunto signed. on top, as I am aware that sueh a device has niy naine in the presence of two subscribing been before known 5 but Witnesses.

What I claim as my invention7 and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The dovetaled groove a in the bearing C, and the notch o, in combination with the wedge- Vtnesses: lsided runner B, screw D or D, and foot-piece S. R. C. MATHEWS, A, substantially as and for the purpose herein XVM. H. BAKER. set forth.

VASHBURN RACE. 

